Senate leader tells Democrats to “grow up”

[NOTE: At least seven Trump Cabinet nominees are expected to appear before Senate committees this week.  Congress can’t officially confirm a president’s nominees until after he’s sworn in, but can hold hearings to help expedite the process and get nominations ready for Inauguration Day — (which is the first day a nominee can be confirmed).
Each nominee will first have a hearing with the Senate committee that has oversight responsibilities for his or her department. Once the committee holds a vote and approves the nominee, that candidate will be voted on by the full Senate].

(by Emily Schultheis, CBS News) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he expects the confirmation process for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees to continue on schedule — and that Democrats attempting to delay the process are doing so because they’re “frustrated that they lost the election.”

“All of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration at having not only lost the White House but having lost the Senate,” McConnell told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I understand that but we need to sort of grow up here and get past that.”

McConnell said that, just as the Senate did for Mr. Obama’s nominees in 2009, he expects to have seven of Mr. Trump’s nominees confirmed the same day he is inaugurated.

McConnell’s comments come after the Office of Government Ethics expressed concern about the confirmation timeline in a letter to Democratic senators on Friday, saying that several of Mr. Trump’s nominees still have not been fully vetted. In the case of some of his nominees — such as ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson — the individuals’ vast financial and business holdings contribute to the need for more time to review everything. Democrats have called for more disclosure from the nominees, including tax returns.

Senate Republicans felt equally opposed to Mr. Obama’s Cabinet picks eight years ago, McConnell said, but they voted to confirm them anyway.

“I was in [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer’s situation eight years ago … what did we do? We confirmed seven cabinet appointments the day President Obama was sworn in,” he said. “We didn’t like most of them either, but he won the election.”

He dismissed Democrats’ arguments that there are ethical concerns with some of Mr. Trump’s nominees, saying Republicans felt just as strongly about Mr. Obama’s “wildly liberal” nominees in 2009.

“We found most of his [Obama’s] Cabinet appointments just as disturbing as they would find President-elect Trump’s,” he said. “And that’s what happens when you lose the election.”

…On the intelligence community’s report on Russian hacking activities relating to the U.S. election and Mr. Trump’s comments on the issue, McConnell said he understands a new president’s hope to get along with Russia — but said those hopes will “be dashed pretty quickly” once Mr. Trump takes office.

“I don’t think it’s all that unusual for a new president to want to get along with the Russians — I remember George W. Bush having the same hope,” he said. “My suspicion is these hopes will be dashed pretty quickly — the Russians are clearly a big adversary and they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election.”

He added that Mr. Trump’s national security picks make it clear that he will not be soft on Russia.

“I think the best way to look at the president-elect’s attitude toward the Russians is to look at incoming national security leaders: Gen. Mattis, Gen. Kelly, Cong. Pompeo, Sen. Coats,” he said. “None of these are people are in any way conflicted about the view that the Russians are not our friends and are a big problem.” …

For a list of Trump’s cabinet nominees, go to President-elect Trump’s transition website greatagain.gov.

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